I grew up here. My childhood home in Whiting Woods has quite a history.  It seems there was a speakeasy in the woods — called the Pasadena Mountain Club,  where members paid 25 cents to join and legally drink illegal alcohol — yea, a speakeasy. But that’s not all that was easy — the club had a bad reputation — yea, a reputation like in easy women.

The California General Attorney closed the club under the Red-light Abatement Act of 1913.  There were 10 cabins at the club that were rented out for assignment — that means prostitution. The club was closed down, and the property had a lien on it.

That’s when the lienholder, Mr. Perry Whiting, came in and bought the property and 44 acres. He renovated the main building and made his home there, calling it Whiting Manor. He was a wealthy man, owning and selling construction materials, so he and his wife got a Manor. Funny word.

Within the next two years, he bought the adjoining 675 acres — some from his neighbor, a Chinese man who pretended to sell vegetables but was actually selling opium. This story keeps getting better. Oh yea, there is a story that some guy got shot and killed at the speakeasy, too, before Whiting purchased the place. I guess it was the wild wild west.

When I lived in Whiting Woods, the Old Manor was still there, horses and all. I don’t know who lived there, though. (No speakeasy or easy women — they were gone by then.) It was later torn down and subdivided—what a shame. I love old buildings.

The Whiting Woods bridge goes over what used to be a dirt “wash” and has since been cemented to be an official waterway. I remember one rainy winter when one of the homes started to slip into the raging wash, the dirt banks eroding away. La Crescenta had a lot of water problems and flooding in the early days before catch basins.

Here’s the same area today, from the bridge: (and our little corner bus stop, where the school bus picked us up)

This is the cement water-way:
My second homestead in the woods:
My first homestead in the woods:
One rainy winter, view from our home:
The Whiting Manor (previous Speakeasy):

A view of the Whiting Manor:
The road to the Whiting Manor: